Englewood, chosen as the “Manliest City” in the U.S., don’t need no stinkin’ Old Spice. Movoto, which covers “the lighter side of real estate,” names Colorado as the winner of the national ?Quien es mas macho? contest.

The most manly city? Englewood! Really! Look for yourself:

“Like the majestic Rocky Mountains and mighty Colorado River that cuts through them, the state of Colorado is a beacon of ruggedness throughout the American West and beyond. With its abundance of outdoor activities and wide-open spaces, this icon of the Old West and the gold rush is easily one of the manliest in the union. It’s the kind of place where you can climb a mountain or steer a raft down a roaring river during the day, then enjoy a big bison steak, glass of whiskey, and fine cigar at night while sitting beneath a painting of manly men mining gold.

“While the entire state is pretty much a Mecca of manliness, we thought we’d look a little closer and use our experience in ranking cities on a national level to determine which metros can claim to be the manliest.

“Based on our research —- which may or may not have involved some breaks to cut wood and wrestle bears -— we found that the following Colorado cities are tops when it comes to manly stuff:

Rafting companies on the Arkansas River were already battling the start of a tough season, and then the Royal Gorge Fire erupted Tuesday. By Wednesday it had swelled to 3,800 acres and destroyed tourist structures on the south side of the Royal Gorge Bridge. On Wednesday, reports indicated that the bridge would need a structural integrity evaluation.

The Royal Gorge, and its bridge, are among the top tourist destinations in the state. (Colorado River Outfitters Association)

“How do you evacuate a whole rafting company?” pondered Arkansas River Tours owner Bobby Hamel, who was trying to coordinate things at the rafting outfitter’s Cotopaxi site while his wife and business partner, Marsha Hamel, with whom he was in sporadic contact, handled things at their location on 8 Mile west of Cañon City.

Update: As of Thursday, no trips were allowed in the Royal Gorge, but companies that normally raft Bighorn Sheep Canyon and Brown’s Canyon on the Arkansas River were doing so, and reporting no smoke issues — not to mention that the river is at a terrific level (rapidly heading toward 2,000 cfs as we speak).

A cashier at REI in Denver bags items during a holiday sale on Friday, Dec. 26, 2008. (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)

The famed and generous REI return policy is undergoing a major overhaul.

Citing a “growing number of customers who stretch our policy beyond its intended purposes,” Tim Spangler, REI senior vice president for retail, emailed customers on Tuesday to say they have one year from the purchase of an item at an REI store or REI.com to return or exchange it, except for items purchased from REI-OUTLET — which must be returned within 30 days.

Its “100% Satisfaction Guaranteed” policy does not cover ordinary wear and tear or damage caused by improper use or accidents, the company states. Items with manufacturing defects — even those purchased and then used a few years later — can still be returned at any time. The policy previously allowed customers to return any item, even years after purchase and use.

In a phone interview, Spangler said that the company started noticing a “material impact on our profit” from returns that were more than a year old, beginning three years ago.

There were no road blocks this time. But since I had two full days before I had to be in Cairo, I shopped around to see which airlines would allow me to have an extended, multi-day layover without paying for it as an actual stop. Could I enjoy 24 hours of Athens before moving onto Egypt? Or might I have a day and a half to explore Amman before heading southwest to Cairo?

Anyone who’s ever put a relationship through the great-outdoors meat grinder to see what’s left of it on the other side can relate to Gail D. Storey’s tale of long-distance hiking with her husband, Porter. Even the title, “I Promise Not to Suffer: A Fool for Love Hikes the Pacific Crest Trail” (Mountaineers Books, 2013), immediately evokes those trade-off moments required to get through such an ordeal.

(Provided by Gail Storey) Gail and Porter Storey on the High Sierra Mountains portion of the Pacific Crest Trail.

The couple moved to Boulder from Houston in 2005, the year after they hiked the PCT. “It’s so beautiful here, perfect for hiking and being outside,” Storey says. “I try to get my work done early and get outside whenever I can.”

Storey wasn’t always that enthusiastic about the outdoors. In fact, the book got the title while the couple was already on the PCT — a 2,663-mile course from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington that climbs through the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains — a little more than 600 miles into the hike, as Storey was questioning, not for the first or last time, whether she should quit.

Stoney Eskew has heard it all. Elite athletes, people looking to lose weight or maintain weight loss, folks who can’t figure out why they’re working out like crazy but can’t seem to budge that last 5 pounds.

Like some kind of wellness wizard, Eskew, a metabolic expert, personal trainer and weight loss specialist, lugs around a weird-looking machine that can actually help anybody looking to vastly change their fitness levels — all they have to do is strap on a mask connected to a hose and breathe while riding a stationary bike or running on a treadmill.

The data Eskew collects from that transaction, which takes about 30 minutes, will tell her everything she needs to know to recommend specific workouts — including how long, how often and how intense — as well as caloric intake and other nutritional advice that will help shed weight or amp up metabolism.

[media-credit name=”RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post” align=”alignnone” width=”495″][/media-credit] If you’re hating on the mid-April snow, you’re basically hating on river rafting, fishing and more. Above, rafters on a trip with Clear Creek Rafting Company make their way down Clear Creek in May of 2011.

If you’re on social media, you’ve surely seen the incessant complaining.

If you’ve somehow missed it, you’re lucky. But if that’s the case, we’re here with the Cliff’s Notes: “There’s snow! In Colorado! In April! Snow! Isn’t it spring? The sidewalks are icy! The streets are dangerous! OMG THERE’S SNOW!”

All that hyperbole is true — this snowstorm has rocked Denver, the mountains and beyond. But what’s hard to understand is all the surprise, not to mention all the negativity.

[media-credit id=75 align=”alignright” width=”224″][/media-credit] It would be hard to imagine a prettier, more relaxing setting than The Broadmoor for the Women’s Wellness Weekend.

The message for the Women’s Wellness Weekend at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs April 12-14 seemed to be choices and how they affect our overall wellness, and it started being delivered with the welcome on Friday.

He was one of the first-night speakers, and he began with a few sobering statistics for the super-healthy state of Colorado. The good news: We’re still No. 1 for the lowest obesity rates for adults. The bad? It will hit you right in the well-honed gut: We’re No. 23 for childhood obesity.

That’s right. If we don’t make some changes and fast, our hard-earned healthiest-state rankings are going to sink faster than a chocolate doughnut in an extra-foam latte.

Um, actually, that never happens. It’s true that reviewing fitness clubs and gyms is a tiny part of the job, but I go to them on the weekends or in the morning before work. I write about them on work time, yes, but if I had to do the working-out part on company time, I’d never get any work done. So I squeeze in all of my workouts just like everybody else.

I can remember at one point thinking – like so many have — that it must be easy for Oprah and other wealthy celebrities to lose weight because they can pay a trainer and a gourmet chef to whip up low-fat, low-calorie meals all the time and then they can take time off to go run on the beach whenever they want. And sure, that must help.

As the weather warms up and cyclists return to the roads, so does the dilemma of what to do with bicycle tubes destroyed by blow-outs. Want to repurpose them? Take this excellent advice from thebigeazy of reddit.com’s r/bicycling forum

“Next time you replace a inner tube, keep it.

Cut the tube in half at the valve and dispose of the valve. Keep the dust cap; you always need a spare

Cut off the a small slice of the tube and then roll it up, using the slice as an elastic band to keep it rolled up.

The inner tube has multiple uses, including:

Elastic bands, as described above.

Fire starters: An inch-long bit wrapped around some kindling will start a fire, even in the rain

If you have bar ends on your bike, cover them with inner tube. On cold days, your fingers will not stick to the metal.

Keep a bit of inner tube on your handlebars. Put it over the brake, locking your bike wheel, very useful when taking your bike on a train or bus.

Bits of inner tube make a great cushion between various attachments on your bike, much better than the insets that come with the items.

Inner tube make a great seal. It can be used to make lights waterproof.

Inner tube can be fitted below the saddle tube to seal the saddle tube and the seat tube.

Patches made from an inner tube can be used, with puncture repair glue, to repair torn panniers, holes in tent ground sheets, and even a tire (for a short distance).

Use a length of inner tube to attach spare spokes to the outside of your bike. Or put spare spokes inside a length of inner tube, seal up both ends, and then slip that inside the saddle tube and seal with more inner tube. Spare spokes can then stay on your bike for years, as they are out of sight and protected.

Use as a seal round fuel bottles to stop them leaking

Use to do a repair on a torn inner tube as a very large patch (if you have enough glue!)”

Travel and OutWest editor Kyle Wagner grew up in Pittsburgh and lived in Lake County, Ill., and Naples, Fla., before moving to Denver in 1993, where she reviewed restaurants for Westword before moving to The Denver Post in 2002. She considers the best days to be those that involve her teenage daughters and doing something outside, preferably mountain biking or whitewater rafting.

Dean Krakel is a photo editor (primarily sports) at The Denver Post. A native of Wyoming, he has authored three books, "Season of the Elk," "Downriver" and "Krakel's West." An avid kayaker, rafter, mountain biker, trail runner, telemark skier and backpacker, Dean's outdoor adventures have taken him around the world.

Douglas Brown was raised about 30 miles west of Philadelphia in West Chester, Pennsylvania, where he spent a lot of time running around in the woods and fields (where he hunted and explored), and in the ocean (where he surfed and stared at the horizon). Now he lives in Boulder and spends as much time hiking, running, skiing and boarding the High Country (and the Boulder foothills) as possible.

Ricardo Baca is the entertainment editor and pop music critic at The Denver Post, as well as the founder and executive editor of Reverb and the co-founder of The UMS. Happy days often involve at least one of these: whitewater rafting, snowshoeing, vintage Vespas, writing, camping, live music, road trips, snowboarding or four-wheeling.